Liposuction, or suction lipectomy, is a surgical procedure to remove fat from various locations in the body. Conventional liposuction procedures use cannulas coupled to suction devices to remove fat from the body. In this approach, the cannula is inserted into a region of fat and the suction device is activated to aspirate fat though openings in the cannula. The fat that is removed during this procedure can be disposed of or transferred to another location in the body, such as in breast reconstruction procedures or other fat transfer applications.
Conventional liposuction cannulas, however, have various drawbacks. For example, one drawback of conventional cannulas is that the sizes or types of openings in the cannula cannot be altered during a procedure. If the surgeon would like to change the size or type of openings in the cannula being used, he or she must remove the cannula from the patient and exchange it for a different cannula, which can increase the length of time that the patient is anesthetized. Additionally, a very large number of cannulas would be required to have a range of sizes and configurations of the openings in a liposuction cannula. Accordingly, there is a need for improved methods and systems for use during fat removal and/or fat transfer procedures.